The penny: the coin that sits in the console of our cars, never to be spent. The coin that kids toss into fountains to make wishes. The coin that your grandpa will soon tell you, “We used to be able to spend those, you know.”

The penny: the American tradition that ended last month.

When I was asked to give a penny for my thoughts about the death of such a staple, I was immediately up to the task. The penny and I never had much of a relationship. Fast food drive-thru employees would hand them to me and I would basically discard them. They were a better fidget toy than actual currency. But when I saw on Instagram that the penny had been discontinued after its 238-year run, my heart sank a little bit. 

The first one-cent coins were minted way back in 1787, when the Fugio coin came into circulation, according to Finest Known. Since then, the penny has seen many designs, from Miss Liberty to an Eagle to old Abe marking the bronze coin (except for the stint when the penny was steel). For a long time, they were viable tender. Many things once cost less than five cents, and the penny wasn’t treated as a piece of scrap metal but as something that people could actually use.  

Inflation has rendered the penny useless for anything but change. In 1800, it was worth about what a quarter is today, according to the CPI Inflation Calculator. Since then, it  has not only lost purchasing power but has also become much more expensive to mint. 

The debate to stop minting the penny is not a new one. Starting way back in 1989, there have been multiple requests by Congress to end it, according to UVA Today. While the coin fought on, it has failed to make it past the second Trump term. 

When production stopped, the penny cost a whopping 3.69 cents to make, according to economist Timothy Taylor’s website “Conversable Economist.” Every penny takes almost four pennies to make. It just wasn’t making “cents” anymore. With the rise of card-only transactions,  the penny was losing its shimmer. But, still, we are losing something that has been such a staple in our pockets and the way we spend. 

While there are still billions of pennies in circulation, at some point we are going to run into a major issue: which way do we round our purchases? It doesn’t sound like it’s that big of a deal, but at the end of the day it could mean buyers or sellers losing millions a year, according to Time. When the remaining pennies in circulation get lost in washing machines, trash cans and couch cushions, our rounding problem is going to be an interesting one. 

But beyond all of this, I am just sad to see this staple go. It’s going to be harder to find a lucky penny on the ground, and when I do, I might just want to hang on to it. Are kids in elementary school no longer going to add up with pennies? Nickels don’t have the same ring or effect. 

Does it really make a difference in my life? No. But long live the penny, America’s least useful national treasure, and may it continue to live on in any place where things get lost.